Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Friday. May your day be filled with hopes and dreams that come true. Remember to smile often and pass that positive energy on to others. On a side note, I have been making some major updates to Leadertank.com. Stop by and take a look, and don’t forget to subscribe if you want to continue to get updates and motivational messages from me as I will be transitioning from this blog to the new site at Leadertank.com soon. I have also just released Leadership Solved as an Audio Book. You can get it for only $0.89 HERE. Take care, and once again have a Happy Friday.

If I was to ask you what are your dreams, your goals, your aspirations, what would your answer be? Are you satisfied with exactly where you are? Are you comfortable in the position you are in at the moment? In other words, are you completely satisfied with where you are in your life that you can afford to put yourself in cruise control?

Well I challenge you to strive for something better by not getting complacent and resting on your laurels of past success that you limit yourself from the ability to accomplish new things within your personal and professional life.

The trick to getting better all the time is to start small. Pick a few things that you can focus on immediately that are a high, accomplishable priority and work towards getting those things done first and then set your sights on more challenging things.

As you start to work off one item at a time toward your goal you will build the competence and the confidence to continue towards bigger and better things, ultimately leading you to a much wider/broader range of success.

Have you ever noticed that every time you run across someone either in passing, at the check out counter, or within a conversation with a friend or family that the first question that comes out of their mouth is “how’s your day or how you doing”? Usually the response is “I’m ok, fine, fair to middling, great, outstanding, fair to partly cloudy, moderately neato, some other positive remark, or a sarcastic negative response”.

I’ve always been intrigued by that. It’s almost as how someone’s day is going will determine how the conversation is going to go. If someone is having a good day then the conversation is usually quick, to the point, and done. But if someone is having a bad hair day then the conversation will go one of two ways. One it could go the way of you are a sympathetic ear and will listen to every word this person has to say as they dump all their problems onto you because you brought up the question. Or, two it could cause a really awkwardly tense moment and you try your best to get out of the conversation by either looking at your watch or creating something else you have to do and you have to leave now.

This question is a great conversation starter or ender depending on how you look at it. But, if you are not prepared for the person to really tell you how their day is, then I suggest you don’t use this as a conversation starter because it could start a whole different thing than you originally intended. Usually I veer off to my next question/conversation starter which is “what about this weather we’re having”, which has the exact same potential for either a negative or positive response. So I am still wondering is there a better way to start a conversation, and if so what is it?

When you look into a mirror, are you happy with what you see? If you are not happy with what you see, then how can you expect others to be happy with what they see? The mirror doesn’t lie, it brutally and honestly tells the truth in so many ways.

Come on, just one more bite. You can do it, just watch one more episode of your favorite show, you don’t need to exercise. Have another drink, your fine. It’s going to be just me and the guys/girls, you can trust me.

Do these all sound familiar?

That is just temptation calling you and temptation is everywhere. You don’t need that extra bite, you need to exercise, you don’t really need that drink, and a night on the town with the guys/girls has potential to end up in a strange place you have no business being at hanging around people with all sorts of bad intentions.

You have to maintain your high level of discipline so you don’t get out of control and out of sync with the things you want to accomplish in life. If your goal is to lose weight, then you have to maintain the discipline to not let temptation get the best of you regardless of what everyone else is eating. If you goal is to write a book, then sitting around the house watching the television all day is not going to get that book written on it’s own. And, I can assure you that drinking will lead you nowhere but down a long, slow road to problems that will still be there once you sober up. Now hanging out with friends and family is a different thing, but you need to ask yourself “is the company that I keep in sync with my goals, or do I need new friends”?

If you answered “no” to the previous statement then I suggest you surround yourself with different people that will lead you in the right direction instead of tempting you into things that are not in sync with your goals and dreams . Remember, temptation is lurking everywhere but you can avoid it by remaining vigilant, focused, dedicated, and most important of all disciplined enough to not fall for it’s grip on you from achieving personal and professional success.

There are many things that people take for granted. I am thankful for everything that has been a part of my life from the things that I have accumulated to the friends and family that I have been blessed with, because in an instant it could all be gone.

About 20 years ago I lost all my physical belongings from my childhood and early adulthood due to a flood that destroyed everything I had stored in a garage. To me, this was devastating as I had several really good memories from all the things that I had accumulated over the years leading up to that event. The things that were all lost had always reminded me of good and bad times from earlier days and in my mind will never be replaced.

Even though all these physical items were gone and can never be replaced, I am thankful that there was nothing other than these items with no loss of life or limb from a loved one. Every single day there are things that happen in this world that we will never fully comprehend, understand, or even have the ability to do something about. The only thing you can do is plan for the worse case scenario by being prepared for anything that may come your way.

I often do what is called role-playing with scenarios. It’s almost like doomsday prepping in the sense that I consider many things that could happen or play out with a particular scenario/situation and backwards plan all the things necessary to alleviate as much possibility for loss, damage, and so forth. By being prepared you can minimize the effects of anything that possibly could happen. But, in the meantime you can and should be thankful for what you do have and that nothing has happened, yet.

Connect with more Daily Fuel by getting my book Daily Fuel for LIFE and LEADERSHIP in which you will get 100 messages and stories just like this one to motivate and inspire you to personal and professional success.

One of my favorite songs is the one from the country group Alabama and the song is called “I’m in a hurry (and don’t know why)” and some of the lyrics are as follows:

I’m in a hurry to get things done
Oh I rush and rush until life’s no fun
All I really gotta do is live and die
But I’m in a hurry and don’t know why

Do these lyrics ring true for you? I have seen some people who are in a rush to get everything done and all they do is wish their life away because they think things are so negative that they just have to get it all over with and done as fast as they can as if there is something better just beyond the time they are wishing away.

One of the most interesting things I done to prove this point is that I was at a local convenience store, only purchased a few items, was at the check out counter and while I was checking out the cashier was being extremely rude and seemed to be in an extreme hurry to get me rung up and out of her hair.

Now, I was trying to be nice and strike up a conversation to brighten the mood of the situation but she was having none of that. So in a final attempt, I just bluntly asked her “ma’am, what time do you get off work?” She just kind of looked at me confused as if I was trying to ask her out on a date or something so I asked her again. She just looked at me and in a huffy tone in her voice said “ I get off at 10 o’clock , what’s it to you?” I looked her back square in the eyes and said “ma’am, you have another 6 hours to go before you get off work, what’s your hurry?” Well, after I said that she just kind of looked at me and laughed and said “thank you, I needed that”.

Sometimes all you need to do is slow down and not be in such a hurry all the time and you enjoy things much better at a slower pace than you will trying to speed race through it all.

Connect with more from me at http://leadertank.com/ and get my latest books Leadership Solved (#9 on Amazon) and Daily Fuel for LIFE and LEADERSHIP (#27 on Amazon)